CD of The Week

Wet Leg are still reveling in their whirlwind success and coming to terms with the fact that this band is their full-time job. They are thirsty to tour again since the new album, Moisturizer, was crafted as a full band, not just by the duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers. Sophomore albums can be a stressful, make-or-break time for an act that’s hungry to prove themselves beyond being a one-hit wonder. But rather than worry about critics and fans, they looked to each other for inspiration and considered how the songs would fare on stage. In the album's press release, Teasdale said “We focused more on: Is this going to be fun to play live...We enjoyed blocking the outside world out and being a bit self-indulgent.” 

Although the album was a group effort, the major theme that ties Moisturizer together came directly from Teasdale and Chambers: love. The driving song “Pond” is one of many tracks to boldly declare some version of “I’ve never been so deep in LOVE!”  Teasdale and Chambers are the first to admit that the lyrics may come across as “too soppy,” but then again, these songs are snapshots of their lives at this moment, and it was important for them to capture the feelings in real time. To that point, Chambers’ song “Don’t Speak,” featuring ZZ Top shoegaze that builds to an Ex Hex hook, sings “You’re the rock to my roll / You’re the sand between my toes / Sweet baby girl, we go like salsa and Doritos.” And on Teasdale’s side, she recently told Variety, “on a very personal level, it felt important for me to write love songs to my partner, who is not a man — they’re non-binary…I just think queer love in particular is just so interesting to me, because there’s no blueprint for it. In the heteronormative sphere, there’s so many movies and so many books and, in the media, it’s all very straight-leaning.” This is a huge shift for her, adding “I’ve never wanted to write a love song about a man. And I don’t even really enjoy listening to love songs from a woman to a man.” 

New love is exciting, and in Teasdale’s case, a giddy, euphoric muse. On the rocker “Liquidize” she sings “How did I get so lucky? / It’s not like me to fall so head over heels.” For Teasdale, love was impossible to mask, and this record declares it from the hilltops. That’s not the message one would get by looking at the horror movie claws, bodily contortions, and massive evil grin on the album art. It projects anything but a message of love, however, Teasdale explained how it represents empowerment and growth in the press release. “When I’m in the straight world, I definitely covered up a lot more, and as soon as I discovered my queerness I just felt so much more ownership over my body because I was doing it for myself, and not for the male gaze. The album cover is kind of in that same headspace.” 

That sort of juxtaposition is key for Wet Leg. Nearly every song on the record is written with the same basic template: fragile, soft-spoken verse ramping up to a catchy, fiendish chorus hook: a structure that Wet Leg executes quite well, particularly on the singles. The slinky, alarming “CPR” with its searing guitars and the Franz Ferdinand-ish “Catch These Fists” about creeps at the club are instantly catchy and intensify as they open up the dancefloor. Occasionally the buzzing guitars are so heavily featured, that they drown out the rest of the track, like on the Garbage-y “Pillow Talk.”  At the same time, the album gives room to showcase Rhian’s cutesy yet dynamic vocals on “Davina McCall” (McCall was the host for the British Big Brother in the 00’s) and the shuffling, head in the clouds “Pokemon.”

This upcoming world tour, already on its way and lasting through November, will be the true test to uncover if the hype is valid or overblown. Moisturizer is a solid album that, based on the members’ account, will be a blast to translate live. Heck, they went into the studio with 16-17 tracks but for album cohesion, they had to drop a few self-proclaimed bangers. Perhaps they’ll make it to the performances. Most of the U.S. dates are sold out, but the Franklin Music Hall show on September 15th still has tickets available as of this writing. Just don’t expect to consume a pack of warm beer with them backstage after the show or anything - they’re bigger than that now.